Alaska has no marine radio examiner, so UAS is asking to become one

The University of Alaska Southeast teaches its deck officer students how to use a marine radio properly. What it cannot do is give them the federal license for it. Every examiner the Federal Communications Commission has authorized to administer those tests is in the Lower 48.

UAS has asked the FCC to let it become one. The application, filed last week from the Maritime Training Center in Ketchikan, would let the university proctor and grade the commercial operator exams behind two licenses that are part of the deck officer curriculum: the marine radio operator permit and the certification for the international distress and safety system ships use to call for help.

Without a place to test, students finish the coursework and go to sea unlicensed, which limits them to vessels that carry radios voluntarily rather than by requirement. Kirk Scott, an assistant professor of marine transportation in Ketchikan, wrote that "with no way to test they do not have an opportunity" to get licensed.

There is an existing route. Applicants can test through one of the FCC's authorized examiners, several of which now offer the exams online, and file for the license with proof of passing. The National Marine Electronics Association, one of them, charges $50 per exam element and covers everything the two licenses require.

Staff at the university's marine training facilities have proctored exams for more than 30 years. UAS teaches deck officer classes in Juneau and Ketchikan several times a year and runs outreach in smaller island communities around Southeast. Testing would be open to anyone, not only students. Students would pay nothing extra, since the radio material is already in their coursework, and the university says outside sessions would stay under $50.

The application is pending.